Match-altering, lead-from-the-front innings have become Australia captain Michael Clarke’s trademark over the past year

Brydon Coverdale in Brisbane12-Nov-2012There’s a certain Venn diagram that shows just how remarkable a cricketer Michael Clarke has become. In one circle are the men who have scored three double-centuries as Australia’s Test captain. Greg Chappell is there, so is Bob Simpson. In the other circle are those who have made three double-hundreds in a calendar year. Ricky Ponting is in that one. In the middle, fitting both categories, are Don Bradman and Michael Clarke.Clarke went to stumps on the fourth day at the Gabba unbeaten on 218. Within a matter of minutes, he was being interviewed on camera by Mark Taylor. It was an exhaustive chat, but Clarke was far from exhausted. He had been batting all day and looked like he could have kept going until midnight.These long, lead-from-the-front innings have become Clarke’s trademark over the past year. There was his 329 not out against India in Sydney, his 210 in Adelaide later in the same series, and most impressively his 151 on an early-season, seamer-friendly pitch in Cape Town last year. Not to mention 139 against New Zealand at the Gabba last year, and 112 in Sri Lanka last September.Leaving aside Bill Brown, who led Australia in only one match, Clarke’s average of 64.72 as the country’s Test captain is second only to Bradman. Not surprisingly, Australia have lost only two of the 14 completed Tests they have played since Clarke took over from Ponting in a full-time capacity. Thanks to Clarke and Ed Cowan, they won’t lose this one either.”I’ll say it’s coincidental,” Clarke said when asked if his rich form was the result of taking on the leadership. “I’m trying to improve every day … It has been nice to be able to lead by example with the bat. I’ve said for a while now it’s not what you say, it’s what you do. Ricky certainly showed that as captain of Australia for a long period of time, that he was scoring plenty of runs and the boys followed. It’s nice to be scoring some – hopefully I’ve got a few more left in me.”For me it’s about being fit and strong. Fitness has always been a big part of my life … being healthy and active. I guess over the last couple of years I’ve taken myself away from the team and done my own boot camp, for my mind as much as my fitness. There’s no doubt I feel a little bit fatigued, more mentally fatigued than physically fatigued at the moment. But I think that couple of weeks away of preparation has held me in really good stead for the last couple of seasons.”Clarke had some good fortune in the earlier stages of his innings, notably with a couple of miscued pulls that somehow fell safely. But having joined Cowan at the crease at 3 for 40, he was perfectly comfortable playing his shots – cutting the short balls and driving, straight and through cover – with the kind of timing that might have had the South African bowlers second-guessing their lengths.”One of the things Warney has taught me over the years is the better the bowling, the more positive you’ve got to be,” Clarke said. “That was certainly my intent from the first ball I faced yesterday: I wanted to be nice and positive and play my way to try and put it back on the South African bowlers because I know they’re a very good attack.”His scoring only became freer as the fourth day wore on and South Africa’s fast men were worn down. He saw off the second new ball without any serious concerns. His timing only improved, and to the detriment of Cowan, who was run out while backing up as Clarke’s powerful straight drive clipped the fingers of the bowler Steyn and crashed into the stumps.Then came more runs. And more. And still more. When the day began, the bookmakers were quoting odds of 101-1 for an Australian victory. By stumps, they were offering 9-1. Clarke and Cowan had batted South Africa out of the contest. Over the past year, Clarke has rewritten the book on the perfect captain’s innings. This latest chapter was a fitting inclusion.

I will try to make reasoned arguments about why Inverarity is right about the ‘informed player management’ policy implemented by Cricket Australia

Tapan Doshi25-Feb-2013There’s been a lot of talk lately, mostly criticism, of John Inverarity’s stern defence of the ‘informed player management’ policy implemented by Cricket Australia, with critics ranging from credible to self-aggrandising.I will try to make reasoned arguments about why Inverarity is right. Since 1999, Australian one-day and Test teams have enjoyed a sustained period of supremacy and excellence. Precisely when their reign ended in the different formats will only be clear 20 years hence; but for the sake of this discussion, let’s consider periods beginning from the 1999 World Cup till December 2010 for the ODI team, and 1999 till the 2010-11 Ashes for the Test teams.During this period, an obscene number of high-quality players came together to play at the same time. These legends managed to keep Michael Hussey, Darren Lehmann, Andrew Symonds, Damien Martyn, Simon Katich, Greg Blewett, Michael Slater, Andy Bichel, Brad Hodge, Brad Haddin, Damien Fleming, Michael Kasprowicz, Stuart MacGill, Nathan Bracken, Brad Hogg and countless more out of the team, some for the better part of their careers. The bench strength was so strong that an injured player could easily be replaced by someone of equal or greater quality and the result of the match would be unaffected.In this phase, Australian teams used only 73 players to play 345 ODIs, and 59 players to play 141 Test matches and had exceptional results. Warne’s dictum – let your best team in each format play together for as long as possible, and the results will improve – might have been true, pre-2007. But two things happened very soon after Warne retired.Many legends in the team retired in the 2007-2008 period. The Australian cricket team has been the most successful team in both Tests and ODIs in terms of its W/L ratio. Success and dominance are mandatory for its cricket teams as a culture. However, since Warne and his mates retired, Australian cricket lost the luxury of plug-and-play legends sitting on the bench waiting for a fellow legend to get injured so that they could waltz into the team and perform at a level that would make a viewer wonder whether the player was wearing the wrong jersey. The domestic structure, which produced fantastic reserves, simply does not any more. Now the squad is full of fixtures (Clarke, Wade, Starc, Warner), unpredictables (Johnson, Tait), fizzle-outers (Ferguson, North, Forrest, White, Bollinger), honest-triers (Doherty, Hilfenhaus, Bailey, Khawaja, Smith, Cowan, Lyon), awesome-but-frequently-crocked (Siddle, Watson, Harris), and exciting-but-unproven (Hughes, Maxwell, Pattinson, Cummins).In 2007, India won the T20 World Cup, which directly led to IPL and a cluster of T20 leagues around the world. The direct consequence of IPL is that players simply started playing a lot more cricket in a lot more places around the world, and because the Australian domestic circuit was so strong, the Australian players simply became value purchases for most of the new franchises. Australian players started playing more, and Cricket Australia could do nothing about it.The stark reality of today’s international cricket scheduling is that players play one extra format at domestic and national levels that adds further strain. More matches, along with more travel, mean more injuries. The number of injuries faced by the Australian squad, especially the recent fast bowling crop, has been well documented.Secondly, the difference in the requisite skillset and mindset from the slowest to the fastest format is wider than it has ever been before. This is why no single team seems to dominate all three formats of the game simultaneously. England, India and South Africa came close, and occupied the No. 1 spot in Test and ODI rankings. However, none of the teams came close to the Australian dominance in all three formats simultaneously.India were brought crashing back to earth in England and Australia months after their ODI World Cup triumph, and South Africa didn’t perform well during the 2011 World Cup or the 2012 World T20 soon after gaining the No.1 spot. Individual players such as Chris Gayle, Brendon McCullum, Dale Steyn, Kevin Pietersen and David Warner have been able to apply their skills to all three formats with more success than others, but a whole team peaking together consistently while playing one format after the next has not happened since the 2007 World T20.Legends like Sachin Tendulkar, Ricky Ponting, Brian Lara, Inzamam ul-Haq, Glenn McGrath and others either retired before the international T20 became a staple of the international cricket calendar, or simply didn’t play enough matches. Clarke hasn’t played a T20I since 2009 despite being a top ODI player. Some like Hashim Amla, Virat Kohli and Saeed Ajmal have had plenty of time to get used to one format of the game before playing the others. Amla has moved from Tests to T20, while the other two have progressed from T20s to Tests.Kallis, by his own admission, has had to work really hard to succeed at T20, simply because he’s had to widen his skills greatly. The point is, even greats of the game struggle to perform at consistently excellent levels when they have to play multiple formats in short time.Inverarity, Bichel, Clarke and Arthur recognise that they have a relatively young core of players, who are not in the league of Steve Waugh, Shane Warne, Matthew Hayden, Justin Langer, Adam Gilchrist, Ponting, Hussey, McGrath and Brett Lee just yet. But they realise that, given enough time and patience, this group has the talent and temperament to do very well for Australia.They also realise they have to form a strong group of reserve players ready to step in because this new group of players will be injured more frequently than the others. Since the Australian domestic circuit is no longer as strong as it once was, the only way to produce a high-quality bench is to make a large group of players play a lot of international games.This could serve a couple of purposes. Firstly, it can help identify exceptional talent and differentiate between all-format cricketers and format specialists. Second, slowly but surely, the journeymen will elevate the quality of the reserves and be ready to step in whenever called upon. The only way to do that is to give the new pool of players opportunity and time.Early on in his career, Warne was part of a huge paradigm shift in World Cricket: separate squads and captains for Tests and ODIs. Informed player management is the 2013 version.

One bowler defines everything that’s wrong with Indian cricket

Andy Zaltzman25-Feb-2013India begin the Nagpur Test facing the possibility of a third consecutive home defeat ‒ an indignity they have not encountered since England won in Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai at the start of the 1976-77 series, and a prospect as ugly as a mistimed Graeme Smith cover drive.They have already lost back-to-back home Tests for the first time since South Africa swept a two-Test series in 1999-2000. The Indian selectors, who had reacted to the recent 4-0 drubbings in England and Australia by springing into action like a coiled doughnut, finally wielded something at least slightly resembling an axe, and cut Zaheer and Yuvraj from the team, plus Harbhajan from the squad.They could have justifiably chopped at least a couple more batsmen, one wicketkeeper and/or one captain, two additional bowlers, and eight or nine fielders from the line-up that failed so dismally in all departments at Eden Gardens, although this would probably have constituted surgery too radical even for the ailing patient which showed so few signs of life in last week’s Test. In the immortal words of the legendary former world-No. 1-ranked playwright and allrounder W Shakespeare (Warwickshire & England), “Breaking up is never easy, I know, but I have to go” (authorship disputed; possible missing scene from the smash-hit 1590s rom-trag ; manuscript unearthed in a recording studio in Stockholm, 1976). And breaking up a team that reached the pinnacle in both long- and short-form cricket, and which still contains some of the greatest and most influential players in Indian cricket history, is even less easy.The Indian media and public have not exactly been salivating at the legion of replacements tearing it up in the Ranji Trophy. There seems to be a particularly gloomy outlook on the bowling front. During my now-concluded two-Test trip to India, my queries about which new or recycled bowlers might successfully, or even adequately, replace the incumbents mostly met with a blank 1000-yard stare, a look of regret, wistfulness and occasional horrific flashbacks to RP Singh wobbling in to bowl at The Oval last year, seemingly selected as a one-man metaphor for the malaise in Indian cricket.India have now lost ten of their last 11 Tests against teams in the top six of the ICC rankings. England themselves had lost seven of their nine games this year against top-six sides before their Mumbai victory, so a turn in fortunes is not impossible. It would, however, be unexpected, particularly given how India’s bowlers sliced through England’s top order at Eden Gardens like a plastic picnic knife through granite-encased deep-frozen butter, and the excellence of all four prongs of the England attack which bowled with markedly superior pace, swing, hostility, spin, skill and consistency than their opponents. Advantages which fielding captains generally appreciate.Perhaps Dhoni and his team have one last hurrah left in them. Perhaps they have the first hurrah of a new era in them. The two could be one and the same. I suspect England will have too many weapons with bat and, especially, ball, and will wrap up an impressive series win that will compensate a little for having flunked their two sternest examinations of the year, and will promise much for 2013.I was struck during my visit to India by its continuing love for Test cricket, the youth of the crowd, and their generosity and enthusiasm even as their team were giving them little to cheer. Crowds have declined as television has increased, but that is not a specifically Indian problem. Whether that affection and interest for cricket’s greatest and most fascinating form endures remains uncertain.Indian cricket is a battleground, the epicentre of the fight over cricket’s future between competing and often conflicting interests that is already and inevitably affecting players’ priorities and techniques. It does not necessarily affect their desire to succeed in the five-day game. Virat Kohli, the cricketer who leads and exemplifies the new generation of Indian cricketers, appears both passionately committed to it, and aware that his status as a cricketer will in large part be defined by his performances in Tests. Five times in this series, he has left the field in an obvious fug of self-recrimination, serially let down by flawed, impatient decision-making and execution. And, in the second innings in Mumbai, by planking a full-toss to mid-off with all the finesse and competence of a DIY enthusiast nailing a smart new shelf to his forehead, instead of the wall.But his desire to succeed does not alter the facts that the varying imperatives of his annual schedule may hinder his efforts to do so, and that, financially, he does not to conquer the five-day game in the way that Dravid’s generation did. The path of his career will be fascinating to follow.Strong leaders and characters are needed in Nagpur and beyond, on and off the pitch. Dhoni has been both for India for most of his tenure as captain. He has led India in 42 Tests – more than twice the next highest total of games skippered by a wicketkeeper ‒ and in a total of 206 international matches altogether over five years, more than three times as many as second-placed Sangakkara (67), in which he has averaged 47 with the bat. It is easy to understand why he sometimes appears jaded. Is there anything left in the well?

From Bhisham Ojha, USA

Akhila Ranganna25-Feb-2013Chanderpaul has quietly crossed into the realm of greatness•AFPIn the 1920’s and 1930’s, West Indies cricket was in its infancy and the side was a hodgepodge of amateurs and weekend cricketers. This team was often bettered by the stronger English and Australian sides. During those forlorn decades, one world-class batsman emerged. He was the bulwark of a frail batting line-up and the team’s fortunes often rested on his shoulders, so much so that CB Fry dubbed him “Atlas”. That player was George Headley.His amazing consistency and penchant for run making earned him another epithet, “The Black Bradman”. Fast forward eight decades, and another batsman, cast in the same indomitable mould has materialised and is drawing comparisons with this great player. He is Shivnarine Chanderpaul, sometimes called Tiger or simply Shiv. For his obdurate batting, resolute temperament and consistent run scoring, almost always in lost causes, he is deserving of another accolade – the Brown Headley.This comparison is not inapt. Chanderpaul came on the scene as the sun was setting on the glorious Lloyd –Richards’ era. In the lean years that followed, as West Indies plummeted from their lofty perch to ignominious lows, the little Guyanese left-hander has grown in stature. Since the retirement of Brian Lara in 2006, he has become the linchpin of a brittle and mediocre batting side. From then to now, in series after series against all-comers Shiv has stood in Casabiancan splendour, quietly accumulating thousands of runs and frustrating bowlers from Lord’s to Lahore.His latest display of Headleyesque run-making came in the just-concluded Test seriesagainst Australia. Chanderpaul’s aggregate in that series was a quarter of the team’s total. His value is starkly evident. In this present West Indies squad [the playing XI in the third Test in Roseau] there is only one other player with a career batting average above thirty and the rest of the team has a total of four Test hundreds. In the last six years (since Jan 2006), he has scored 11 centuries out of the 40 that West Indies have managed. Since 2007 he has tallied over 3,000 runs at a Headley-like average of 66. In the 2007 and 2008 calendar years he averaged over 100, joining Don Bradman as only other player to do so in consecutive years. That period was a purple patch for Chanderpaul .He was ranked the No. 1 Test batsman for seven months in 2008 -2009. He was a Wisden Cricketer for 2008. That same year, the ICC named him the player of the year. All of this was accomplished with an undercurrent of endemic administrative problems that has plagued the West Indies in recent times.Despite these problems, Shiv has maintained his consistency and kept getting better and better. He has done this by putting a high price on his wicket. In these days of fast-paced cricket he has persisted with the old-fashioned method of occupying the crease, playing each ball on merit and building his innings one run at a time.Too often when he is dismissed it has precipitated a ‘calypso collapse’. On other days, as he dug in, preparing to play a significant innings his team-mates have committed hara kiri, leaving him stranded. This has happened so often that he holds the West Indian Test record for most not-out innings [among West Indian batsmen, excluding all bowlers]. His doughtiness’ has rewarded him with another quirky record: In the 2002 series against India he lasted 1,513 minutes between dismissals.Chanderpaul, however, on infrequent occasions, can deviate from the path of stolidity. One rare and startling exhibition of uncharacteristic audacity was against Australia in 2003. On his home turf of Bourda, in Georgetown he came to the wicket with West Indies in trouble at 47 for 4. Everyone expected Shiv to prod and push in a typical rearguard innings. Against all logic he shed his barnacle shell and blasted the flabbergasted Aussie attack for 15 fours and two sixes on his way to the third fastest Test hundred [at the time]. Another instance of his uncommon ebullience was in a 2008 ODI against Sri Lanka .With 10 runs needed off the last two deliveries, Shiv drove Chaminda Vaas down the ground for four and then lofted him over mid-wicket for the six needed for an unlikely victory.He began his unheralded career on 19 March 1994 against England , when as a frail nineteen-year-old he walked out in the Bourda sunlight and took guard with the now trademark hammering of the bail into the crease. After several bouts of nerves he blossomed and Wisden Almanac noted that “Chanderpaul made a debut half-century of wristy elegance”. He notched twelve other half centuries in 18 matches before scoring his first hundred. He now has 25 tons, the third most for West Indians, behind Sobers (26) and Lara (34). Shiv’s career aggregate of 10,055 makes him the second-highest run getter for the West Indies. His fifty-nine Test fifties are ahead of other West Indians and only Allan Border, Jacques Kallis, Rahul Dravid, Ricky Ponting, and Sachin Tendulkar have scored more. His career average of 50.02 is greater than his illustrious predecessors: Kanhai, Lloyd, Greenidge, Worrell, Kallicharran and Hunte, and he is only a few decimal points away from topping Viv Richard’s.Shiv seems an unlikely choice for inclusion into a pantheon of batting titans. But his durable class, the dedicated occupation of the crease and the sheer weight of runs made against all countries in all conditions often in solitary, perilous circumstances has placed him in hallowed company. He has quietly crossed into the realm of greatness and can now be unapologetically mentioned in the same breath as Lara, Richards, Sobers and Headley. And as he continues to strive in adversity, confounding both critics and captains, there is the tantalising prospect of years from now whenever a dream team, an all-time West Indies Test side is again chosen, Shivnarine Chanderpaul will take his rightful place in that immortal eleven

ESPNcricinfo’s brief profile of the Chennai Super Kings official now in police custody

Sidharth Monga25-May-2013Until two days ago, the impression Gurunath Meiyappan gave was that of one of the few IPL team owners who behaved normally and in a dignified manner. Now he is not the team owner anymore and, it can be surmised given his current location, lacks some of that dignity. After Mumbai Police sent him summons to appear for interrogation for his alleged involvement in illegal cricket betting, his franchise, Chennai Super Kings, was quick to wash its hands off him; he is no longer the team principal nor does he have to do anything with India Cements, the company that owns Super Kings.This controversy might have brought Gurunath to the national headlines but in Chennai circles he didn’t need any extra push. Even before he married Srinivasan’s daughter Rupa about 10 years ago, Gurunath was well known as the son of AVM Balasubramanian and grandson of AV Meiyappan, the founder of AVM Productions, arguably the oldest TV and film production house in south India. In Chennai, where the film industry transcends commercial status, that is among the most powerful calling cards. His marriage to Srinivasan’s daughter was the coming together of two of the richest families in Chennai.Known as “prince Gurunath” in Chennai, he is active on the city’s golfing circuit – which is where he met Rupa, who is also an avid golfer (as is his father-in-law). Golf plays a large role in his make-up: he has been reported as saying he learnt about possessing strong values while playing golf. “In a day’s golf, you can discover much about a man’s character — how he is as a person, and how he would do business. Everything.” He has also been an ardent motor-racing fan.Gurunath has been the owners’ representative in the Super Kings dugout. He is seen taking pictures, sharing the trophy, and some of the players have referred to him as “team principal” and at times “boss”. He also lifted the paddle at the IPL auctions and has talked on record in detail about the team and his involvement with it, including the auction strategy.Gurunath is the son of the flashier of the brothers who were heir to Meiyappan’s considerable fortune. He is not known to have played an active role in his family business. His promotion to “team principal”, which Super Kings now deny, was initially seen as Srinivasan’s move to mask his alleged conflict of interest as BCCI president and part-owner of the company that owns Super Kings. After the arrest, though, that debate no longer exists.

Hughes has one thing in common with his coach – unorthodoxy. But Lehmann’s presence should be useful in helping the left-hander deal with spin

Daniel Brettig in Taunton30-Jun-2013Phillip Hughes was not yet in school when Darren Lehmann had already learned to deal with the sorts of criticism so often attached to that most fascinating, entertaining and occasionally infuriating of batsman: the unorthodox left-hander. Now as Australia’s new coach, Lehmann is ideally placed to help Hughes deal with troubles against spin bowling that have become the latest of a series of mountains for the younger man to climb.Much like Hughes, Lehmann’s technique and choices of mentors were questioned. His chances of making it as an international cricketer were dismissed out of hand for reasons like “he plays half his matches in Adelaide”, “looks jumpy against pace” and even the odd allegation of “scores too quickly”. Unlike Hughes, those critiques helped stop Lehmann from playing international cricket until his first-class career was a decade old.Both share a ravenous appetite for run-scoring and a knack for making hundreds. Hughes in fact outstrips Lehmann in his early aptitude for doing so – by the age of 24, Lehmann had 17 first-class hundreds to Hughes’ 21, none of them in Tests. But one major point of difference is their relative comfort when facing spin. Lehmann was near peerless at his best; Hughes is near shot-less at his worst.”Obviously he’s only just come in recently but I’ll be talking to him day in and day out about especially spin,” Hughes said. “Because he really dominated spin bowling through his whole career so it’s something we can all keep working on and he’ll be fantastic for that.”I studied him when I was younger, I loved watching him play, and I think the aggressive way he went about it is something I try and do as well and a number of the boys in the team model our games around. So it’s good to have him around and he’s really putting us into that positive frame of mind.”Positivity is important to Hughes more than most. An improved capability against spin, and the denial of negative or survival-oriented thoughts will be critical if Hughes is to bat down that order, as he was commissioned to do in the first innings at Taunton.”I really enjoyed batting at No.5 and then obviously 3 [in the second innings], but it’s only a number next to your name and I’ve always said that I don’t really mind where I bat,” Hughes said. “It’s just about opportunity really and about performing. I think it’s a good thing giving everyone a go in different positions just to see. I’ve been lucky enough to go from opener all the way down to 5 now so it’s a good thing. It’s only something you can continue to work on.”One point of progress during Hughes’ innings of 76* and 50 against Somerset was his ability to rotate the strike against the spin of George Dockrell. There were well-struck sixes too, but the singles were more instructive as to Hughes’ best chance of thriving against Graeme Swann, not allowing England’s No. 1 spinner to work him over.”Yeah it’s nice to get off strike, doesn’t matter who you’re really facing especially at the start of your innings to work into it,” Hughes said. “They kept changing the field and you want to try and manipulate that as much as possible. I thought he bowled quite well, there was a fair bit of rough outside off stump, so it was nice to get to the other end today against a spinner and on a dry pitch.”Hughes and the rest of the tourists have now settled in Worcestershire, which in 2012 proved a critical juncture for him after a horrid summer in Australia that began with “caught Guptill, bowled Martin” and ended with his departure from New South Wales. Much as Lehmann’s international prospects only gathered momentum after he ventured to Yorkshire and proved his ability to play on a greater variety of surfaces, Hughes’ horizons were broadened at Worcester, not least by their coach Steve Rhodes.”It was nice to get away from a lot of things and go out there and enjoy my cricket and the four or five months I was there, it was times I’ll never forget,” Hughes said. “I speak to Rhodesy a fair bit and I can’t wait to catch up with him again, and have a few chats along the way. But they’ve been real good and he really gave me that freedom to go out there and express myself.”It’s a bit like my second home. They really looked after me there for the four or five months I spent there, it was really good for my confidence 12 months back, and I’ll be meeting with all the guys over the next few days and catch up for dinner. They made me feel welcome when I was there and it’s going to be good to see some mates.”No doubt Lehmann can relate to that, too.

A Pakistani superman, a Pakistani Panesar and Shahid Afridi lookalikes – the action was happening off the field at Birmingham

Abid Raza11-Jun-2013Choice of game
Taking an early lunch break on 6th May, I was bitterly disappointed to find that online tickets for the biggest game of the Champions Trophy had been sold out within two hours. But I did manage the next big thing – Pakistan v South Africa. After defeats for both in their respective opening games, this was a veritable do-or-die match.Team supported
The earliest memory that I have of my childhood is of my brother jumping off the sofa and landing on the glass table in front and shattering it when Miandad hit six in Sharjah. Ever since, it’s been Team Pakistan for me all the way.Key Performer
In my opinion Ryan McLaren clearly stole the show. In the absence of Dale Steyn and Albie Morkel, I thought the Saffers would have no steam upfront, but Mclaren put paid to such hopes. His return in the batting Powerplay, when Misbah-ul-Haq was shuffling restlessly in his crease to break free, ensured Pakistan wouldn’t pull off a late charge.One thing I’d have changed
Nasir Jamshed’s untimely dismissal. Misbah joined Jamshed at the fall of Shoaib Malik’s wicket and after a few careful overs, both began to middle the ball. Jamshed was looking especially good in his knock of 42. His mishit came at a crucial time in Pakistan’s chase and left Misbah a mountain too high to climb.Face-off I relished
Amla v Ajmal – two colossi of the modern game squaring off in a classic battle. Following a bit of cat and mouse gameplay, Amla went after Ajmal with some reverse-sweeps. Finally, Ajmal had the last laugh when he induced a false shot to deny Amla a well-deserved century.Wow moment
Misbah’s acrobatic catch late in Saffers’ innings was unbelievable. He had already had a splendid day in the field, saving a number of runs, and effecting two run-outs as well. But his blinder to dismiss David Miller off Junaid Khan’s bowling was simply amazing. Seeing a 39 year-old leaping to intercept, and pouching it with both hands was priceless.Shot of the day
For me this was AB de Villiers’ effortless flick off Malik for a six in his first over. For the first time ever, I almost touched an international cricket ball as it fell a few inches short of my out outstretched hands. If this was a fairytale I might have caught AB and lived to tell the tale. Alas, that was not to be.Crowd
Even crowds in Karachi and Peshawar are not as partisan as they were here in Edgbaston. Every wicket taken, every run scored and even Wahab Riaz’s glares at the batsman were greeted with deafening noise. Being in the same spectators block as Cricket meant a whole day of chanting and dancing to the tunes of ‘Dil Dil Pakistan’. We were the originators of a number of Mexican waves that were consistently doing the rounds. This kept us entertained even when the Pakistani batsmen were inducing major yawns in the crowd.Fancy dress index
Edgbaston was painted green today. A sea of Pakistani fans turned up in various interesting looks, in dresses to show their unmistakable affiliation. There was a Pakistani superman, a Pakistani Panesar and Shahid Afridi lookalikes.Entertainment
The party atmosphere was amplified by the official drummers all around the ground. Every wicket and every six was followed by heart-pounding drumming. It really knocked our socks off.Banner of the day:
A banner which at the start of the match read ‘V R Ready India’ turned to ‘V R Not ready India’ by the end of this woeful day for Pakistan.Overall
For me this was a great ODI experience. The wonderful venue, boisterous crowd and some quality cricket gave us much to cheer about. However the sad end to the Pakistan innings did dampen my enthusiasm, which is why I will award this game 7 out of 10. Too bad I chose the wrong game to bring the Mrs. along to make her a convert. Never mind, may be next time.

Part two of the flash-in-the-pan XI features bowlers who rattled the opposition once and then went off to lead a peaceful, non-violent existence

Andy Zaltzman07-Oct-2013Joining the top six line-up of Joe Darling, Andrew Sandham, Frank Hayes, Faoud Bacchus, Maitland Hathorn and Dennis Lindsay, according to the selection criteria laid out in part one, are the following:7 & honorary captain. Ajit Agarkar (India): 26 Tests; one century, no other fifties; one six-wicket haul, no other four-wicket innings
The first name on the team sheet. Ignore his excellent ODI stats, Agarkar is a Test-match statistical legend of the highest calibre, a numerical phenomenon of almost mind-bending proportions. He played 26 Tests. He flashed in the pan once in 46 innings with the ball. He sizzled in the saucepan once in 39 innings with the bat.His one day of glory with the ball was in the Adelaide Test of 2003-04, one of India’s finest wins. Having taken 41 wickets at 46 in his first 17-and-a-half Tests (including, after a promising second millennium, a pitiful 28 scalps at 54 apiece in years beginning with the number 2, featuring just one three-wicket innings in 26 attempts), Agarkar suddenly put on his new magic Richard Hadlee cape and skittled Australia with 6 for 41. He then made the mistake of putting the cape in the same hot wash as his Christina Aguilera cape. His bowling was never the same again – eight more Tests, 11 wickets at 74 – but his singing voice is sensational.His solitary batting triumph in the five-day game came at Lord’s in 2002, where he carved his name on the honours board with a century that was of little relevance to the match – in the fourth innings, as India lost heavily – but which began with Agarkar proudly clutching a Test match average of just under 7.5, after 18 innings adorned with eight ducks, including an almost heroic four golden quackers in succession against Australia in the 1999-2000 series. That sequence was broken in Sydney when the Mumbai Momentary Marvel dug in, stopped the rot, built an innings, and got some valuable crease-time under his belt. With a staunch, resolute, indefatigable second-ball duck. A relative epic.His 109 not out at Lord’s was, therefore, a statistical Vesuvius erupting from a partially constructed molehill. He scored some useful runs in his final 14 Tests, but never passed 50 again. Of the 44 players who have converted their only Test half-century into a hundred, Agarkar’s 38 further fifty-free innings is a Bradmanesquely-untouchable record – after him, the next most half-century avoiding innings by a centurion is 20, by his Flash-In-The-Pan XI team-mate, the early 20th-century South African non-legend Maitland Hathorn.Agarkar is one of 32 Test bowlers to have taken six wickets in the only innings in which they have dismissed more than three batsmen. Only two of them have bowled in more than 30 innings – Agarkar (46), and India’s 1950s batting allrounder GS Ramchand, who bowled 56 times, took 6 for 49 in Karachi in 1954-55, and whose third-best Test figures were 2 for 19.Agarkar is the only choice to lead this team. He never captained India, but modern captaincy is much more about setting an example for others to follow than it is about leadership experience or tactical subtlety, and Agarkar is to Test match flash-in-the-pans what WG Grace was to late 19th-century batsmanship. A towering icon of one-off genius.8. Upul Chandana (Sri Lanka): ten wickets against Australia in the Cairns Test of 2004; excluding that: 27 wickets in 15 Tests, average 49
Chandana began his Test career with 6 for 179 as Sri Lanka were pulverised by an innings by Pakistan in Dhaka in March 1999, but, given that his first wicket came at 483 for 3, with Pakistan already 250 ahead, it was not a resoundingly impactful performance. In his next ten Tests, he failed to take three wickets in any innings. So it is fair to assume that, when a very strong Australian batting line-up prepared to face him in Cairns in 2004, they were probably not thinking to themselves: “This guy is going to take ten wickets in less than 45 overs in this Test match, becoming the first visiting spinner to take five in both innings in Australia since Bedi and Chandrasekhar did so for India in 1977-78. And there is absolutely nothing we can do about it.”That, however, is exactly what the Galle Googler did. They were, admittedly, expensive wickets, but he struck once every 27 balls. Excluding that one-match oasis of effectiveness, his ten Tests after his 2002 recall harvested 11 wickets at 76, with a strike rate of 143.Prior to Bedi and Chandrasekhar, the only overseas tweakers to take five in both innings in a Test in Australia in the previous 100 years were South Africa’s Hugh Tayfield, in 1952-53, and Jack White, in 1928-29, in his days as an England left-arm spinner, before he embarked on a major career change in the late 1990s to become the frontman of the Grammy-award-winning blues-rock legends The White Stripes.9. Paul Allott (England): 14 wickets at 20 in three Tests against the 1984 West Indians, including 6 for 61 at Headingley; otherwise, 12 wickets at 66 in ten Tests, with a best of 2 for 17
Allott’s 1981 debut promised much – an unbeaten half-century in his first innings, having come in at 137 for 8, and two wickets in each innings. However, in his next four Tests, that promise studiously avoided coming to fruition, as the Lancashire Lolloper took two wickets for 326 in 93 staunchly unremarkable overs. He was recalled for the third Test of England’s 1984 clobbering by West Indies, and promptly took 6 for 61 in 27 overs of studious probery, including the wickets of Desmond Haynes and Viv Richards. He took eight wickets in the final two Tests of the series, a silver lining amidst the carnage of a 5-0 splatting.Amid the rubble of this humiliating series whitewash, had England at least found a new line-and-length lynchpin to hold their attack together? No. No, they had not. Allott played five more Tests over the next year, striking once every 25 overs and averaging 64, and his Test career was finished.10. John Lever (England): 10 for 70, and 53, on debut, in India in 1976-77; 26 wickets at 14.6 in the series. Thereafter: 16 Tests, best figures 5 for 100, never took more than seven wickets in a series; highest score: 33 not out
When Lever hooped England to an innings victory in Delhi in December 1976, he became the only cricketer in Test history to take ten wickets and score 50 on debut. His 7 for 46 remains the best analysis by an England bowler in his first Test innings, and he is the only English debutant since Alec Bedser in 1946 to take ten in the match. All this in a game in which only three other wickets were taken by seamers. And in which his 194-ball 53 constitutes the longest debut innings ever by an English tailender (batting 8 or lower).Lever took 14 more wickets in the remaining four Tests, but could manage only nine in six Tests in the 1977 Ashes and the 1977-78 series in Pakistan. From then on, the mere mention of the name “Lever” was enough to prompt England to yank the lever on the selectoral trap-door, and leave out Lever. He played a total of nine more Tests in eight years, spread over a logistically impressive eight separate series. Despite reasonable results in Tests (34 wickets at 30), and a decade of relentlessly wicket-filled excellence in county cricket, England’s selectors seemed convinced that if he played more than once in a series, the world would end, or the Queen would turn into a French pumpkin, or the Soviets would invade Somerset and steal Ian Botham, or the Soviets would invade and clone Geoff Boycott.11. Chris Pringle (New Zealand): 7 for 52 and 4 for 100 in his third Test, in Faisalabad in October 1990. Otherwise: 19 wickets at 65 in 13 Tests, best match figures of 3 for 81
You are about to captain your country in a Test match, away from home, in Asia. Whilst you are rubbing a bottle of linseed oil with a cloth in your traditional pre-match ritual, a genie appears and offers you one paceman from the entire history of cricket to skittle your opponents with seven quick wickets on the first day. Who do you choose?Chris Pringle. You choose Chris Pringle, the early-1990s New Zealand dobster. He is one of only two seam bowlers to have taken seven wickets on the first day of an away Test in Asia. The other was West Indies pace legend Andy Roberts, but you still choose Pringle, because he took his seven wickets in fewer overs and for fewer runs than Roberts did when he blasted India out with 7 for 64 in Chennai in 1974-75.Pringle followed up with four more wickets in the second innings. And did almost nothing in his remaining 11 Tests. He is still the only visiting seamer to take ten wickets in a Test in Pakistan (or on neutral grounds against Pakistan). Admittedly, it was bottle-top-assisted, but genies appreciate people taking the tops off bottles. It stops them suffocating to death.

A team that used to programme calculated destruction of the opposition has been reduced to making flawed, human gambles

Jarrod Kimber at Adelaide Oval06-Dec-20130:00

Kimber: Australia ran away with it

There was a time, not even that long ago, that watching England play was like watching a well-organized show dance at a major awards ceremony. Every single person knew their role. The moves had been well practised beforehand. It was entertaining without ever being fun. And behind the scenes you knew there was someone really angry, and focused, with a clipboard and walkie talkie.It was safe, calculated and effective.In Adelaide last time, England took wickets with the new ball on a good batting pitch, then kept Australia below three an over until they had picked them off for less than 300. With the bat, Kevin Pietersen, Alastair Cook, Jonathan Trott, Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood batted with ease and put on a score that meant batting twice would probably not be needed. On a flat pitch they waited, used Graeme Swann perfectly and rotated the other end well, until Australia just faded away.It was their first win of the series. It was their blueprint working exactly how they would want it: magic from KP, stunning effectiveness and professionalism from everyone else.Now England are not that team. If their batting has showcased that for the last 18 Test innings – during which they have failed to reach 400 – their morning session in the field showed that their whole game was slipping away.Australia started the day 5 for 276. In no one’s estimation were they massively ahead of the game on this Adelaide pitch. Yet England played as if the pitch was completely dead and the only way to get wickets was through improvisation and enterprise. Essentially, England strayed away from the sort of Sensible Solutions cricket they play so well, and went a bit funky.It very nearly worked. With the new ball still only 12 overs old, Monty Panesar had Michael Clarke dancing down the wicket and spooning the ball into the outfield. It could have gone anywhere. England’s decision to bounce, and bounce, Australia with the short ball, also almost paid off as Brad Haddin skied a ball towards a slow-to-react Panesar.But it is here where you start to wonder what is wrong with England. In their glory years, would they have tried to bounce a batsman out with two fielders in the deep if one of them was their worst fielder? And would they have played two of their attacking options at once, leaving them very little to fall back on with two quality batsman at the crease? It didn’t seem like them.Neither did the capacity to miss six chances in the field. Michael Carberry dropped a catch an eight-year-old would take, then followed it up with a failed run-out that a professional cricketer should have executed. Missing that many chances in one innings on a pitch like this is like headbutting a wall on the hottest day of the year while listening to death metal with the heater on. It’s hard to imagine, let alone remember, a time under Andy Flower when they would have missed that many.Despite Clarke’s poor beginning, he soon got completely on top of Panesar and Swann had to be brought on. At the other end, the newish ball was continually brutalised into the pitch by Stuart Broad, James Anderson and Ben Stokes. Haddin and Clarke are essentially designed for pitches like this. England miscalculated and were far from effective.Cook’s captaincy had short covers, two men out for the short ball, a short cover and at times no one behind square on the off side. For Swann it was an in-out field that he rarely, if ever, uses. It was as if Cook was trying to throw every idea he had ever daydreamed about against a wall and hope it stuck. It did not.Mitchell Johnson comprehensively cleaned up Alastair Cook, 145 runs short of his last innings in Adelaide•PA PhotosIf England won the last Ashes by using a formula; they are trying to win this one with random attacking events.The one thing Cook never really tried was just drying the runs and bowling in the channel outside off. England’s staple meal. When an England bowler did bowl a decent length ball in a good area, it looked like it could work. Clarke plainly just missed one and Haddin nicked behind from a no-ball. But that revolutionary tactic wasn’t followed through with.You could argue that they were spooked by Shane Warne’s constant abuse of Cook’s defensive ways. But despite the column inches and ratings they get, it’s doubtful they care about anything Warne says. It could also be a classic case of fear of the flat Adelaide Oval pitch. This is the pitch that more than once turned South Australia’s Jason Gillespie and Mark Harrity into giant flapping birds, because of the sheer lack of life in it.The suspicion is growing that somehow, in a staggeringly short amount of time, England have lost faith in the way they play. It can happen to any team on a tour. Especially a hell tour, which this isn’t yet, but which it is hinting it might be. From the professional robotic machine they have turned into flat desperate gamblers.What is worse for them is Australia have changed too.The flawed side who tried hard in the UK have (with help from England) started to look like the sort of aggressive beasts of doom they were in their heydays. Ryan Harris made a king pair in Adelaide in 2010, this time he blitzed a not-out 50. Doug Bollinger’s career was all but ended the last time in Adelaide; he could be back next week in Perth. At this rate, Xavier Doherty will be a shock inclusion for Sydney and take a ten-wicket haul.Mitchell Johnson was rested/rotated/dropped from this Test three years ago. Today it took only one over from Johnson to turn a jolly crowd into the angry mouth-breathers baying for blood from days of old. It was glorious. It was unscientific. It was brutal.In one ball, Johnson beat Cook in almost every way possible. Last time in Adelaide, Cook made 148. This time he missed the ball by what seemed like 148 metres.Adelaide is different from three years ago. Australia are different from three years ago. So, too, are England.

Stats highlights from the fifth day’s play of the Durban Test between South Africa and India

Shiva Jayaraman30-Dec-2013

• South Africa have now gone 14 series without defeat – their longest unbeaten streak and the joint-third-longest by any team in Tests. Only Australia (16 series) and West Indies (29) have gone longer without a series loss. In their last 25 series, South Africa have lost only once.
• By beating India at Kingsmead, South Africa ended a sequence of four consecutive defeats at the venue. Their last win in Durban was against West Indies in 2008.
• Ishant Sharma’s wicket in India’s second innings was Dale Steyn’s 350th in Tests. He became the joint second-quickest to the mark, in terms of number of Tests. Steyn equalled Richard Hadlee in getting to 350 in his 69th Test. Muttiah Muralitharan, who took 66 Tests, is the fastest bowler to 350 wickets in Tests. Steyn, incidentally, reached 350 wickets in 9 years and 9 days, which is exactly how long it took Murali as well.
• Steyn has now taken 350 wickets at 22.90 and his strike rate of 42 is the best among bowlers with more than 200 wickets.
• South Africa’s fast bowling was clearly the difference between the teams in this series. Their fast bowlers took 30 wickets at 26.93 as opposed to the 18 wickets at 51.00 by India’s fast bowlers. South Africa’s spinners did slightly better than their India counterparts, taking nine wickets at 45.88 while India’s managed six wickets at 50.66 apiece.
• South Africa’s fast bowlers ended 2013 with 133 wickets at an average of 20.36. This is their second-best year as a pace attack since readmission, behind 1996, when they took 67 wickets at 18.01.
• The 14 dismissals that AB de Villiers collected are the joint second highest by a wicketkeeper in a two-match series, after Kamran Akmal’s 15 dismissals against West Indies in 2005. De Villiers also contributed with the bat, scoring 190 runs at 63.33. His all-round performance won him his Test career’s third Man-of-the-Series award, making him the wicketkeeper to have won most such awards along with Adam Gilchrist.
• The six wickets that India’s spinners took is the second fewest they have taken in a two-Test series outside the subcontinent, behind the five wickets they took in New Zealand in 2002-03.
• India’s top six batsmen averaged 44.78 in the series, which was their highest in South Africa. Cheteshwar Pujara, Virat Kohli and Ajinkya Rahane all scored 200-plus runs in the series, the first time three India players scored 200 or more in a Test series in South Africa since 1996-97, when Rahul Dravid, Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly achieved it, albeit in a three-Test series.
• Pujara’s total of 280 runs in the series is the second-highest by an India batsman in South Africa, after Tendulkar’s 326 runs from three Tests in 2010-11. Pujara also managed to outscore India’s previous No. 3, Rahul Dravid, whose highest aggregate in a Test series in this country was 277 in 1996-97.
• Hashim Amla managed just 43 runs from three innings at an average of 14.33. This is his worst series, both in terms of total runs and average, since his first two Test series in 2004.
• Ajinkya Rahane’s 96, in India second innings, is his highest score in Tests and his second fifty of the series.
• While South Africa’s tail wagged, making valuable contributions to their team’s totals in this series, India’s last four batsmen hardly put up a fight. They scored 73 runs at 5.61 as opposed to South Africa’s, who made 211 runs at 35.16. The Indian tail’s average is their lowest in any series, from a minimum of ten innings.
• Before dismissing Pujara in the first innings of this Test, Steyn had conceded 227 runs and had only taken one wicket, of Shikhar Dhawan in the first innings of the first Test. After Dhawan’s dismissal he bowled 69.2 overs without a wicket. Pujara’s wicket changed everything. Steyn’s figures since then read 9 for 85.